Books listings.September Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Apt. 3W by Gabriel Brownstein. A stunning debut, this short-fiction collection is mainly set in one Manhattan apartment building. The story "The Inventor of Love" evokes a lesbian social worker's desperation to place a deeply troubled child with a well-intentioned gay male couple. (W.W. Norton, $23.95) Nowhere Man by Aleksandar Hemon Aleksandar Hemon (born 1964) is a Bosnian fiction writer living in the United States. Hemon was born in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, to a father of Ukrainian descent and Serbian mother. . Hemon, a Sarajevan-turned-Chicagoan, is considered the 21st century's Nabokov. His first novel features Victor Plavchuk, a queer theory grad student who narrates one chapter from the life of his (unrequited) beloved, the brooding Slavic protagonist Jozef Pronek. (Doubleday/ Nan A. Talese, $23.95) Screening Party by Dennis Hensley. The author of Misadventures in the (213)--and a frequent Advocate contributor--returns with a hilarious sort-of novel in which Hensley and his friends gab their way through movies beloved (The Sound of Music)and otherwise (Glitter). Mystery Science Theater 3000 was never this deliciously catty cat·ty 1 adj. cat·ti·er, cat·ti·est 1. Subtly cruel or malicious; spiteful: a catty remark. 2. Catlike; stealthy. . (Alyson, $16.95) October Normal by Amy Bloom. Bloom is renowned as a fiction writer, but she's also a practicing psychotherapist psy·cho·ther·a·pist n. An individual, such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, psychiatric nurse, or psychiatric social worker, who practices psychotherapy. . Her deeply probing exploration of gender, which introduces peg pie living somewhere between male and female (transsexuals, cross-dressers, and hermaphrodites Hermaphrodites half-man, half-woman; offspring of Hermes and Aphrodite. [Gk. Myth.: Hall, 153] See : Androgyny ), is further testament to her psychological wisdom and humanity. (Random House, $23.95) Nothing That Meets the Eye: The Uncollected Stories of Patricia Highsmith. These stories, written between 1938 and 1982 by the master of suspense who gave us the sly Tom Ripley and his less subtle prototype, Bruno Anthony, are certain to creep under your skin. (W.W. Norton, $27.95) Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America by Dan Savage. The charmingly irreverent, acid-tongued sex advice columnist winds up the "religious self-righteous" with a cross-country quest for sin, introducing giddy sinners of all seven kinds along the way. (Dutton, $23.95) Wild Heart: A Life by Suzanne Rodriguez. A riveting biography of Natalie Clifford Barney Natalie Clifford Barney (31 October 1876 – 2 February 1972) was an American expatriate who lived, wrote, and hosted a literary salon in Paris. She was a poet, memoirist, and epigrammatist, but believed her life was her true work of art. , a privileged woman born in 1876 who would grow up to trade Victorian American society for belle epoque Paris, where she schmoozed among the literati literati Scholars in China and Japan whose poetry, calligraphy, and paintings were supposed primarily to reveal their cultivation and express their personal feelings rather than demonstrate professional skill. and seduced countless women. (HarperCollins/Ecco, $27.95) November Avoidance by Michael Lowenthal. Lowenthal's second novel is a striking meditation on community that centers on a graduate student whose sense of belonging is threatened by his desire for a seductive teenage boy. (Graywolf, $16) Edinburgh by Alexander Chee. Small press Welcome Rain published this astounding a·stound tr.v. a·stound·ed, a·stound·ing, a·stounds To astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise. [From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, debut last fall to tremendous acclaim, including the Lambda Literary Awards' Editors' Choice Award. Now this uniquely affecting story, about a Korean-American choirboy who suffers shame at the hands of a pedophile pedophile Forensic psychiatry A person with pedophilia; there are an estimated 500,000 pedophiles in the world. See Child prostitution, Megan's law, Pedophilia. , can reach critical mass as a paperback. (Picador, $13) |
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